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"Ballad of Tom Dooley."

by Thornton W. Mitchell, 2006

Thomas C. Dula was born in Wilkes County on 20 June 1844, the son of Mary Dula. In 1862 he enlisted in the 42nd Regiment, North Carolina Infantry, as a private. Dula was captured at Kinston and was a prisoner of war at Cape Lookout, Md., where he was released in 1865. He returned to Wilkes County, where he resumed a liaison with Ann Melton, begun when he was 15 years old. In 1866 he cohabited with Laura Foster, from whom he eventually contracted syphilis.

On the morning of 25 May 1866, locals saw Foster on Stony Fork Road riding her father's mare with a bundle of clothing on her lap. The next morning, the mare returned alone to the Foster home, and a search began for Laura. On 18 June, searchers found Laura in a shallow grave, dead from a stab wound. Dula fled to Watauga County and then to Tennessee, where he was captured about three weeks later and returned to Wilkes County.

Dula and Melton went to trial for murder in Wilkes County, but the case was moved to Iredell County, where Dula was convicted. A second trial was held after the North Carolina Supreme Court reversed the decision, and Dula was again found guilty. He was hanged in Statesville on 1 May 1868.

Even before Dula's execution, locals in Wilkes and Watauga Counties sang a ballad about the incident, featuring the following lyrics:

Hang down your head,Tom Dula,
Hang down your head and cry;
You killed poor Laura Foster,
And now you’re bound to die.

The Kingston Trio revived and popularized the folk song in the 1950s as "The Ballad of Tom Dooley."